Weird History The Craziest Medical Practices Doctors Thought Made Sense

Modern medicine has seen more development in the past fifty years than in all of human history combined. Many long practiced medical treatments now seem completely insane in retrospect - things like putting animal dung on a wound, drinking urine, carving holes in your skull, or drinking potions made of morphine or mercury. What are the craziest medical practices from all of human history? What was once used as medicine but was later found to be, well, actually super dangerous?

There were lots of weird things used as medicine before the advent of modern science. However, some of these practices continue in one form or another - no matter how crazy they are, if something works, doctors are going to keep doing it.

Here are some of the dangerous medical practices from yonder days, a few of which survive in some form, and some others which almost certainly killed those who partook in them. Upvote the medical treatments that you think are the most nuts and are glad that went by the wayside, thanks to scientific advancements and modern medicine.

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Sex with a Virgin

Photo: via Twitter The troubling myth that someone infected with a “social disease” can transfer it to a virgin through sex dates back to at least the 16th Century, when the practice was first documented in relation to powerful men trying to rid themselves of syphilis and gonorrhea. Sadly, this ridiculous superstition continues in some parts of the developing world, especially Africa, leading to many cases of reported child rape.

Intentional Malaria Infection

Photo: via Reddit An early version of “chicken pox parties” involved intentionally infecting syphilis patients with malaria. The theory was that the fever produced by the malaria would kill off the syphilis, and that the malaria would then be cleared up through some other terrible treatment. In reality, the malaria usually just killed the person who had the syphilis.

Dead Mouse Cures

Photo: via Reddit Dead mice were used for medicinal purposes all the way back in Ancient Egypt, where they’d be blended with other compounds to ease toothache pain. Later, the English in the time of Elizabeth I cured their warts by cutting a mouse in half and applying it to the spots. Bits of dead mice were also used to treat whooping cough, measles, smallpox, and bed-wetting – all to varying degrees of success.

A Hot Poker in the You Know Where

Photo: via Pinterest

Virtually everything has a patron saint – even painful hemorrhoids. It was once believed that if a person did not pray to the canonized Irish monk St. Fiacre, who was said to protect one from such maladies, that they would suffer from hemorrhoids. If you chose not to pray to St. Fiacre and came down with them, you were sent off to the monks - who would put a red-hot iron up your anus (presumably while chanting). Alternatively, you could sit on St. Fiacre’s famous rock, the spot where the seventh-century monk was miraculously cured of his own hemorrhoids.

Later treatments were far less painful and more effective – soaking in a hot bath.